They're located in Royal Oak, Ferndale and Berkley

You may have some bargaining chips here.

Check the comps and if come are 95 or lower, you might have bargaining chip...

With the amount of money that goes into Real Estate it still blows my mind that people have a "let the chips fall where they may" attitude. 

A good friend manages about 50 rental homes in the Marion Oaks area mostly.  

Search BP for that, as well as cashflow vs appreciation, or my name and you'll get plenty of discussions on how lots of money is made in blue chip, aka hard to cashflow locations like NYC and SF.

My contractor installed particleboard kitchen cabinets that have a oak doors.

Nice oak cabinets and kitchen appliances.

Alot of contractors up here use their insurance as a leverage chip, "my insurance costs are so high etc".

That's not crazy high, in fact for comparison (numbers are from 2012, vary somewhat depending on school district within the city):Non-Homestead property tax ratesFerndale 72 millsHazel Park 77 millsClawson 69 millsMadison Heights 64 millsOak Park 69 - 75 millsPontiac 55 millsRoyal Oak 54 - 58 millsSouthfield 62 - 69 millsEastpointe 67 millsWarren 66 - 72 millsRedford 70 - 73 millsHarper Woods 87 - 90 millsDetroit 85 millsAllen Park 60 - 67 millsDearborn 65 - 72 millsRiver Rouge 102 millsWestland 52 - 59 mills Berkley's millage rate is actually on the lower end.